


Something More than Luck

by WastelanderCamo



Category: Fallout - Fandom, Fallout 4
Genre: Character Study, Gen, quest rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 21:06:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5800108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WastelanderCamo/pseuds/WastelanderCamo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>MacCready’s new boss is less of a pistol, and more of a hair-trigger rifle. On their first big job together, he finds out a little bit more about her before he even knows her name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Something More than Luck

MacCready had been sitting in shrubs for what felt like hours. He wasn’t one to criticize a boss, especially when they had just begun their work together; but there was a knot in his leg and his arm was shaking from holding his rifle steady for so long. Maybe he could just walk away. If his legs would let him. He heard a soft exhale and her rifle cracked another shot. He watched through his scope as a Forged bit dirt. There was a flurry of activity, the psychos were trying to find who had been picking them off. He had to give it to her, she knew how to pick her blinds, but this had been going on for too long. They would pick one off, wait for the others to settle down and then pick off another one. The sun had been high when they started, now it was starting to set. He could feel sweat on his back. Any longer and the Forged would be able to smell them out.

 

“Stop hiding! Cowards!” A particularly burly thug toting a heavy flamer screamed. Little did he know he was only a few yards away from those ‘cowards’. He could have tripped over them. The dumb shit just moved on. They had fallen into a rhythm of alternating shots, so MacCready started to scan the roofline for the next target.

 

“Boss, is there any particular reason we’re stuck in this da- hole or do you just like being close to me?” he hissed as he tracked a buxom spotter on the upper catwalks. Pity she was a fucking psychopath. He heard his boss chuckle under her breath.

 

“Little of column A, little of column B. Backside of the building is in full view of a Gunner base. I’ve thinned out these freaks’ numbers before, but they recruit damn fast. If there are as many inside as outside, I’d rather not risk jumping into a fire.” It was his turn to snort. He wasn't going to complain about avoiding the Gunners.

 

“Hence why I had to hoof it all the way back to Goodneighbor.” She continued, reloading her beat up old hunting rifle. “I was thinking about trying to convince Fahrenheit to come on a little raider hunt but when I went down to Third Rail– there you were. Pretty as a picture. Lucky for me you shoot as good as you look.”

 

Instead of blushing he took his shot. The girl’s head exploded in blood. He’d never really gotten used to that. He never really got used to the flirting either.

 

“ _Look, if you're here to preach about Atom, or looking for a 'friend', you've got the wrong guy.”_

“ _That's a pity. You look pretty friendly to me.”_

_Her blue and yellow suit hugged every curve, the zipper straining to stay at her collar bone. She was not a wastelander. She was too well fed, her skin too clear, her eyes too bright. And she was leaning forward to get on his level, making it hard to meet those bright eyes. He almost wished Winlock and Barnes would come back to give him something else to look at. He had to stand._

“ _If you need a hired gun...then we can talk, if not, the bar's behind you”_

“ _As it happens, I do need a friend to run a couple jobs with. What do you think, hot shot? Want to roll out with me?” He noticed she didn't ask about the angry Gunners. So she was either working with them to draw him out of Goodneighbor or she didn't care. He didn't know which was worse._

“ _How do I know I won't end up with a bullet in my back?”_

_She laughed. It was distracting. Very distracting. “You don't, that's part of the job isn't it?” She offered her hand. He reached up and took it._

_It was warm, and far too soft._

“ _250 caps...up front. And there's no room for bargaining.” He tried to make his voice hard, maybe he could price her out. She looked thoughtful. Her grip tightened._

“ _Everything is negotiable. But it is your life. 250 caps is fine.” They shook on it._

“ _You just bought yourself a hired gun” It was way too easy._

 

“So you’re saying it was fate?” He reached to his thigh and pulled another bullet from his ammo belt.

 

“Nah, just good fucking luck” She pulled out a silenced pistol he had never seen before and took a raider that had been getting close. It was much nicer than her other guns, and it bothered him she had never used it before. She slipped it back inside her chest armor and picked up her rifle.

 

“By my count we have about five left. Let’s clear them and move in”

 

“Your call Boss” MacCready took the last roof spotter as the boss took a lookout near the gate. It was too many too fast. Now he knew why they had taken their time. Two molotovs exploded in front of his barrel. They were made. His legs screamed in protest as he bolted for new cover. He heard a shout, and turned in time to see his boss, surrounded by flame, headshot the bandit not four paces away. The term “grace under fire” popped into his head. The last forged started running for the door, and his stock was in his shoulder automatically. The freak hit the ground in a plume of blood. If there was one thing his time with the Gunners had been good for, it was teaching him not to hesitate on the shot. He looked back to the boss, who was walking over to him, a little more charred than before.

 

“Here, this should keep you alive” He passed her a stimpack and some more 308s.

 

“Thanks. How’re you holding up?” She injected the stimpack right into a nasty looking burn on her forearm. He holstered his weapon and stretched.

 

“Better, now that I can stand. What now? You wanna look for more ammo before we storm the place?” She shook her head and switched to her 45.

 

“They don’t have our good taste. Just a bunch of fuel and fusion cells. Let’s head in before they start wondering why everything got quiet. I’ll take point and act as a distraction. Stick to the high ground and keep them off my back.”

 

He nodded. In the short time they had been together he had noticed a pattern. If possible, as soon as they noticed a target they would try and pick them off at range. If that didn’t work the boss went head down and straight for the throat while he stood back and cleared their six. It worked well. Really well. He had traveled the northwest road out of Goodneighbor before, but with the boss it went…smoothly. They never got taken by surprise, they had never needed to find a hole and nurse their wounds under a hail of gunfire. They had made really good time. And now here they were, in the lobby of the Sagus Ironworks, about to kick in the door to who knows what.

 

“I’ve turned off the spotlights, but I don’t know if that applies inside. Keep low as we go in the door and break left. There should be a way to an upper catwalk. There are normally only one or two people on the walk itself, but I should be drawing their attention.” So she had jumped in the fire before. He wondered how bad she had gotten burnt to decide to hire on help. He watched her take another stimpack. No, that was Med-x. Shit, was she addicted to Med-X? He couldn’t remember if he had seen her take it before. She always took second watch, said she was a morning person. Maybe she took it then?

“Hey. Hey hotshot” her fingers were snapping in front of his face, “You hearing me? Or am I just too pretty?”

“Sorry. Yeah. Stay low, break left, catwalk, high ground. One or two then cover you.” He checked his ammo bag. It was getting low, but it should be enough.

“Good. Let’s go kick their teeth in”

 

She was a madwoman. He was sure of it. She kept running straight at them, through a hail of bullets and laser fire. He picked off another one that had been about to shoot her in the back. Another molotov lit up right next to the Boss. It was like she didn’t even see it. She was too focused on the thug with a laser rifle in front of her. She hit him with her stock and MacCready could swear he heard the guy’s jaw breaking. He shot another round into the guy and he went down. Finally. They had pushed through to the rear of the building, thanks to the boss’ quick fingers on a terminal to unlock the doors. He scanned the area again through the scope. He couldn’t see anyone else walking around. He could hear the motor of a turret but he couldn’t see it. Yet. He lowered the rifle and watched his boss climb up the ladder steps to the catwalk. She was…calm. As if she hadn’t just brained someone with a combat rifle. Just a leisurely stroll through the park, drinking a can of water. Damn, that looked good. The heat in the factory was oppressive. If he thought he was smelt bad before, he knew he did now. His hat wasn’t even keeping the sweat out of his eyes anymore. She offered him the can as she got closer. He downed it immediately, the strange intimacy of the gesture lost in his thirst. He threw the can over the railing to see if he could scare up some more targets. There were none.

 

“So what now boss?” He was eager to get out of there and to someplace cooler. Maybe jump into the river, cool his head.

 

“We keep going up. We haven’t reached our target yet. I never got this far before. I know its been long, but I need you to stay with me for a bit longer.”

 

They weren’t done? There was more to this hellhole? He should have asked for more caps.

 

“Hell, I’d walk a thousand miles if I knew there was a pile of caps waiting for me at the end” he tried to shrug off the ache in his back “There is though, right? Caps I mean?”

 

“Yeah, but there’s something more important than caps at the end of this one. C’mon. Lets try and find this bastard”

 

He bit his tongue. Nothing was more important than caps. She was fooling herself if she thought any different. Just when he thought she wasn't a naive dweller with soft hands. He watched her walk off towards the sound of the turret. The 111 on her back still threw him if he glanced over it. He needed to convince her to wear something less conspicuous. He resisted the thought of helping her out of her suit, drawing the zipper down, how her skin would look flushed in this heat. He shook his head and jogged to catch up with her.

 

If he thought the temperature on the factory floor was bad, nothing could have prepared him for the wall of heat once they reached the upper blast furnace. Fuck it was bad. The heat made his head swim. No wonder these freaks acted crazy. They were all dehydrated and hallucinating. He could barely follow as some asshole in power armor ranted on the balcony above them. Some poor sap was on his knees, some poor kid was trying to argue. The boss was being a smartass. He grinned. He liked it when she got mouthy. But maybe not when he felt like he was about to vomit. Then the shooting started. He took down a couple of lackeys while the boss put a few well placed shots into the power armor asshole’s head. It took longer than it should have. His head was swimming. Once they were all down the boss walked up and grabbed the kids’ arm. Well, he said kid, but he probably only had a few years on the guy.

 

“Listen, Jake” she knew the kid’s name. Was this their target all along? The Boss’ voice took on the tone Daisy’s did when she found him drunk in the alley behind her shop. Motherly. Disappointed. He hated that voice.

 

“I know the farm life isn’t glamorous, it takes a lot of hard work and there isn’t a lot of caps in it.” Ain’t that the truth. The boss shot him a glare. Had he said that out loud? “Your dad is kind of a bastard, and he makes you feel powerless. But the only power you get out of raiding is destruction. All these guys are dead, and you know how the world will remember them? It won’t. They haven’t done shit. They’ve taken and taken and given nothing back and nothing is how they’re gonna be remembered. But those fruit trees on your farm can live for centuries if you let them. That corn can feed towns. It keeps people alive. It gives. It means something. So go up, get your Dad’s sword and we are going to go the fuck home.” The kid, Jake, didn’t even try to argue. Probably for the best. Maccready had never seen her this...done. Jake grabbed something off the power armor and came back down obediently.

 

“Is this the part where we get to leave?” Maccready tried to break the tension, “because I would really like to fu- leave”


	2. Something More than Luck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maccready and the Boss deliver Jake back to the family farm. Then they have a moment.

The roof felt like heaven. The night was dark and they didn’t have to worry about Gunners spotting them. A breeze picked up from the water. He took his hat off and ran a hand through his hair. He felt like getting naked and laying on the cool concrete. He was way too hot. He could probably wring out his underwear. The boss was fanning herself, pulling at her collar. Distracting. Jake was trailing sheepishly behind her, holding a big ass sword that looked like it could be lit on fire. A flaming sword. What the fuck.

 

“So…” MacCready gestured to the kid.

 

“This is Jake Finch. His family runs the farm we passed on the way here. Jake thought it would be a good idea to run off and join the local raider gang” The boss explained.

 

“I was gonna make a bunch of caps, more than my Dad could make. I thought I would provide for our family the way he never would.” That made MacCready wince. Getting in trouble with the wrong crowd, trying to make caps for his family. That hit a little close to home. He glanced at the Boss. She was picking her way down a ladder to the ground. Did she know already? He hadn’t told her. But she knew he was in deep with the Gunners. Did Daisy rat him out? No, he didn’t think so. Maybe it was just coincidence. God he hoped it was coincidence. He motioned for Jake to go down next. He was torn between feeling bad for the kid or being pissed at him for making slog through the Ironworks.

His feet hit the ground and he felt better. It was over. They had survived. There were caps waiting for them. He watched the boss take another stimpack. She had taken more damage than she was letting on.

 

They got back to the farm deep in the night. The lanterns were turned high. Jake’s dad, Abraham, as the Boss called to him, was waiting for them on the porch. Or maybe he was just keeping watch. Jake barely got two words out to his Father before the rest of the family poured out the door. Abraham came down the steps to meet them.

 

“I suppose I should thank you,” Abraham reached into his pocket and pulled out a bag that clinked like caps. His voice was…flat. Not the voice MacCready would think of for a man who was just reunited with his son. “Tell the Minutemen that if they need us, we’re ready to help”

 

The Boss looked at the sack of caps, and back to Abraham. She didn’t reach out to take it. Should he reach out to take it? She wasn’t going to refuse was she? MacCready felt a panic in his chest. She can’t just leave caps on the table. Finally she reached out her hand.

 

“I won’t say no to the money. But if I ever hear you tell Jake that you hired me to get that fucking sword-“ So that’s why the guy seemed so distant. MacCready fought the urge to deck him. Duncan’s face lit up in his memories. He would do so much…he had done so much…just to try and give his son a fighting chance and this guy hired them to get his sword back? “- and not to save him from the Forged I will personally _shove that damn thing up your ass_.” Her voice was dripping with intent. She would do it. MacCready knew she would do it. Abraham knew she would do it too, by that look in his eyes. The bastard excused himself to go back to his family. His wife was yelling at him now. It seemed like the Boss wasn’t the only one fed up with his attitude.

 

MacCready turned to his Boss. The light of the house was dancing on her face as she watched the Finches. Her eyes were far away. She smelt like sweat and gunpowder and ash. She held the bag of caps in a white knuckled grip. Magnolia’s soft voice drifted up from her pip-boy. In the lamplight she looked different, smaller. Lost. Somehow, the idea of taking the money and walking wasn't so appealing anymore. He resisted the urge to reach out and take her hand.

 

“What happened?” he asked softly. She turned and looked at him, eyes wide with surprise. She glanced at the Finches, reassuring herself that they couldn't hear her.

 

“My son. They took my baby and I couldn't stop them” She met his eyes again. They were shining. “I have to find him. I have to...” She buried her face in her hands. His arms were around her shoulders before he could think. His shirt was already wet. She could cry all she wanted to.

 

“What's his name?” he tried to keep his voice low and even.

 

“Shaun” she squeaked out between sobs.

 

“We'll find Shaun, Boss. I promise. I'll stay with you until we do.” She sniffled and pulled away from him. He let her go - reluctantly. His hands felt empty. She looked better. Calmer. More like the woman he watched fight her way through a pack of ferals at the training yard the day before. The woman that stared down a group of raiders instead of paying a toll. The woman that hired a stranger from a dirty bar and dragged him across the map for a kid that might not have deserved it. Because she had to. Because she couldn't leave a child in that pit. She cleared her throat.

 

“My name is Diana. Call me Di. Please”

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very different version from what I put up on my Tumblr. Its still a little rough, but its time to let it go. I have a tendency to skip over low action transitions, and sometimes that makes things feel a little choppy. I've split it up into two chapters, since the tone is so different between them. Drop me a line if you have any specific criticisms/comments. Seriously.
> 
> **It makes me unreasonably happy to see people reacting to my work. If you like it, let me know!**


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